In many vehicles, a vehicle seat provided in a second row of seats (or a third or additional row) can be folded, and possibly stowed in a compartment in the floor of the vehicle. The vehicle seat typically includes a head rest (or head restraint, which is used interchangeably with “head rest” as provided herein). However, a problem arises that an operator must either manually disengage the head rest, or otherwise move the head rest to a folded position when folding the vehicle seat.
To address this problem, it is known to couple the head rest to a fold/stow mechanism of the vehicle seat, such that initiation of a folding/stowing operation of the vehicle seat automatically moves the head rest to the folded position. Conventional fold/stow mechanisms typically are designed such that the operator initiates the folding/stowing operation by tilting a back rest of the vehicle seat toward a bottom seat cushion thereof, where tilting of the back rest results in movement of the head rest toward the folded position, for example, by means of an actuation linkage coupling tilting of the back rest to the fold/stow mechanism of the head rest.
However, an arrangement in which tilting of the back rest of the vehicle seat automatically results in folding/stowing of the head rest is undesirable, at least because during use, the occupant may wish to adjust seat position by tilting the back rest, without causing the seat to be folded. Therefore, if such an adjustment in seat position is made with the occupant in the vehicle seat, it may cause discomfort or a safety hazard, in particular because tilting of the back rest would cause the head rest to move toward the folded position.
It would be desirable to provide an arrangement in which an occupant may adjust a back rest of a vehicle seat without causing folding of the head rest, while automatically allowing tilting of the back rest to cause displacement of the head rest when the occupant is not present in the vehicle seat.